A little late for this but: One point I should have brought up earlier is that I prefer to power wash/degrease the engine thoroughly prior to beginning. Also up in the fender wells as you will be sticking your head up in there frequently. Having a clean engine minimizes the amount of crap that can fall in the engine while open and makes life much easier.

I put a dab of duct tape over the vent disc on the FICM to keep water out and then jet spray warnings are not so much an issue.

__________________Kennedy Diesel-ownerMore than just a salesman-I use and test the products that I sell on a daily basis!Superflow Lie Detector in house2002 Chev K2500HD D/A CC Long LT 11.77@ 124mph at 7700# fuel only-e.t. needs help2005 Chev K3500SRW D/A CC Long LT(SOLD)2007 Chev K2500 Classic EC Short LT (Sold)2012 GMC K3500SRW D/A CC Long LTZ Happy Birthday to me! Built 1 working day after my birthday and delivered 7 days later.2016 GMC K3500SRW D/A CC short LTZ

A point well taken, and in fact you did mention that in an e-mail or one of your earlier posts to my threads... I suppose the only reason I didn't do so is that a wash would only have cleaned what is visible with a whole engine, and it turns out that there's SO much more to these engines than meets the eye when you open the hood. I'll be spending plenty of time in front of the parts washer prior to reassembly. Picking up a couple of organic vapor cartridges for my respirator is on the list for tomorrow.

And now to today's writeup. They say the third day is the hardest, and today's work tends to reinforce that truism.

I spent too much time last night worrying about what to do with the turbocharger. Thank you Mr. Kennedy for telling me in another thread to not remove the turbo - I'm taking it that the intake manifolds can be removed still attached to the head and will test that theory by just removing the center piece of the intake manifold.

I started the day by removing the "unknown" plug from a bracket that is attached to the front of the left fuel rail and dropped it out of the way on the front of the engine.
Pay attention to where the wire harness for this is routed between the water pipe from the back of the engine... That'll likely come in handy when the water pump comes out.
Next out were the left fuel rail to injector hard lines and the fuel rail. Easy stuff:
then the right side fuel injector hard lines and rail, but first the coolant line to the turbo had to come out

along with all the brackets and bolts that hold it in place up to the rubber 90 degree angle
then the hard lines and fuel rail were easily removed. The following pic was taken before I removed the coolant line I talked about above.
and the bracket on the front of the right valve cover
and the glow plug controller bracket bolts were easy to access with the fuel rail out of the way on the back of the left valve cover

Then it was time to remove the injectors. Alldata says you have to use a certain tool to remove them (J-46594 if memory serves), but I found that gently prying under the holddown bracket would easily pop the injectors out... Except for #3. I suspect that's where the coolant leak is, cuz that injector is NOT coming loose and I am embarassed to admit I cracked the valve cover in my attempts to remove it. Ya know what? The lower valve cover costs less than the injector removal tool. If I can get the injector out without trashing it I'll still be ahead of the game, and the new cover will be here Thursday. 7 out of 8 ain't bad, and it is the first REAL roadblock I've run into this whole project.
I cracked the valve cover under the steel pad that the injector clamp rests on. It wasn't completely unexpected; I was definitely subjecting the cover to stress forces it was not designed to accomodate...

The injector still needs to come out though. Anybody got suggestions on how to overcome the forces holding it in? I'm suspecting the injector tip is held in place by coke built up from coolant being fried in the cylinder... I may have to pony up the cost for a new injector ($425 at the dealer) if it won't come out gracefully.

Moving on...

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting the exhaust manifolds out of the way. This was not nearly as easy as it should be. The left manifold required the removal of the left exhaust pipe heat shield (still got a 10mm socket dropped somewhere back there, likely sitting on top of the transmission bell housing - I'll find it when I get the heads off) and disconnecting the steering column linkage so I could pull the manifold off the studs. The right manifold was easier, but I had to leave the manifold/head gasket in place because I didn't want to remove the oil dipstick tube. No biggie, just another note on the pages of paper I've got to help me put this engine back into working order.

Tomorrow will be spent doing two things: Cleaning all the parts I've taken off so far, and maybe visiting a tool store to pick up a decent set of 12 point sockets. I had to borrow a 12mm 12 point socket from one of the mechanics at the shop I'm using space from today to get the exhaust manifold/pipe bolts out. I hate borrowing tools... I owe him a rack of snob beer now

A point well taken, and in fact you did mention that in an e-mail or one of your earlier posts to my threads... I suppose the only reason I didn't do so is that a wash would only have cleaned what is visible with a whole engine, and it turns out that there's SO much more to these engines than meets the eye when you open the hood. I'll be spending plenty of time in front of the parts washer prior to reassembly. Picking up a couple of organic vapor cartridges for my respirator is on the list for tomorrow.

You'd be surprised what a difference a good power washing will do. Warm water and a gun with a short flexible nozzle works best like thay have at most coin ops.

I see you are a glove guy. I've just become one myself. For years I have battled skin issues and tried to glove up when working on rough stuff as my hands would cut easily due to condition. Well i recently had a flare up andwent to a dermatologist. Found out it's the metals that are getting me due to allergic contact dernatitis built up over years of prolonged exposure. Primarily Potassium Dichromate which also can come from leather gloves. Anyhow, it's gotten pretty bad to a point where I need to glove up. I cheated a couple days ago and changed the oil on my tractor w/o gloves. Bad idea...

__________________Kennedy Diesel-ownerMore than just a salesman-I use and test the products that I sell on a daily basis!Superflow Lie Detector in house2002 Chev K2500HD D/A CC Long LT 11.77@ 124mph at 7700# fuel only-e.t. needs help2005 Chev K3500SRW D/A CC Long LT(SOLD)2007 Chev K2500 Classic EC Short LT (Sold)2012 GMC K3500SRW D/A CC Long LTZ Happy Birthday to me! Built 1 working day after my birthday and delivered 7 days later.2016 GMC K3500SRW D/A CC short LTZ

I got the truck finished last night and it is home now - not without shaking out a small issue today. Somehow during installation the water pump pipe at the back end of the driver's side lost its O-ring. I'm thinking that somehow between maneuvering it back and forth while connecting it to the water pump the O-ring worked itself loose and now has a new home somewhere in the water jacket. It isn't in the fitting that the pipe slides into, and I'm darn sure not tearing down the whole engine to find it... Of course nobody had one in stock, but Ace Hardware had one that fit (1-7/8" O.D, 1-3/4" I.D.) and the engine is holding water now. Took about 4 hours of wrenching to solve that, plus lots of phone calls and running around to get a $0.94 part.

I've got a couple more days to write up (and I will) but not tonight (I'm enjoying a nice cold Alaskan Amber and trying to chill a bit) or tomorrow (gotta update the Valley of the Tetons Library's 10 year plan with a couple other board members). Before the end of the week, promise.

Kennedy, thank you so much for fielding my questions about removing turbos, testing injectors, initial startups after tearing it down, et al. You were super helpful and the project could not have gone as smoothly without your input. BTW, this was about a 100 glove project and I'm willing to bet had I not changed them 50 times my hands would be hammered.

The gasket(s) failed after 6 months of use. The biggest load the engine had on it was towing my daughter's subaru on a car hauler for about 500 miles about 2 months ago. Had zero issues until this Tuesday, when the temp spiked for about 10 seconds.

While the heads were removed I had them disassembled and cleaned and flattened with the valves and seats reground as well as installing new valve guides and seals. Extra $700 ish...

I'm kind of at a loss as to what happened; I don't hammer the truck except for the occasional full throttle pass (and usually see about 17-18mpg because of it in the summer).

John, what are your thoughts on reusing those ARP studs? Possibility? Bad idea? Are they made for just that purpose?

I cleaned up the engine block deck using a flat piece of steel wrapped in 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper, IIRC. Whatever grit AllData said to use, followed by careful wiping with a lint free cloth. The mechanics in the shop were very clear about how critical it was that the deck be absolutely clean. The passenger side bank did not fall together as sharply as the driver's side did though - it took a bit of work to clamp things together and now I wonder if something didn't get tweaked that held together until a few days ago.

John, given that I'll be reusing the head studs, do you have the instruction sheet available (torque sequences and values) that I might ask you to copy and e-mail? I of course tossed the one that came with the parts, KNOWING I'd not need them again

Time to continue the teardown. The batteries, EDU, TCM, fan, shroud, alternator, intake air, charged air, front wheels, fender wells, heater bypass tubes, expansion tank, and a few other parts were removed in a few hours yesterday from the passenger side bank. I can almost see the top of the valve covers... Now to dig through way more plumbing than Joe The Plumber has ever had to mess with.

7 hours of work later and I'm in. Sometimes I hate it when I'm right, but it is good to find the problem you're looking for.
This is the cylinder head that covers the right rear cylinder (#7? Passenger side). Looks like a trip to the machinist is in order and I'm hoping what looks like a crack is only a scratch that will disappear with a bit of milling.
I KNEW this side did not go together like it was meant to.

Is there anyway that I could view the pictures from this post. A lot of useful information in the text alone but seeing the photos would be a great help. I'm attempting the project and could really use the pictures. Thanks

Since Photobucket decided they wanted many $$$ to host pics that could be hotlinked to another site, I dropped 'em. Unfortunately this means no pics are available.
That said, I used my cell phone to take about 150 pics during the disassembly. Those pics (which you can easily take yourself) were key in making sure things were correctly reassembled. I also took a LOT of notes and related them to the pics, as well as having an AllDataDIY subscription to help me along.

IIRC the only special tools I needed were a flywheel lock (goes where the starter goes) and an air hammer/wrench to loosen the crankshaft pulley. Other than that, it's just patience and paying close attention. If you've never done this before, plan on 60 hours.

I understand about Photobucket. I'm taking lots of pictures as I disassemble and that should help me when it comes time to put it back together. Thanks again for the time and effort you put into the write up. It has been very helpful and the occasional laugh has been welcome relief to a stressful project.

If I remember correctly, two points in the reassembly were tough:
1) the intake manifold crossover. I'd had the cylinder heads cleaned, shaved, and given fresh valve guides. The shaving had changed the distance the intake manifolds were from each other and there's a center piece that drops between them. Since they were effectively closer together due to the shaving, the 4 screws (on each side?) were kinda tough to get in place.
2) the coolant crossover on the front of the engine. There's a little rubber tube somewhere in there that proved to be somewhat difficult to properly install.

There might've been some bolts on the back of the engine that were hard to get to as well, but I didn't have to pull the turbo to do anything.

Pictures, notes, and alldata. And a lot of time.

You're gonna be stoked when your engine fires up after 10 or 20 seconds of cranking. You'll know every darn piece of the top end of your engine too.

Did I mention that using anti-seize compound on reassembly is a really good idea? Your torques will be more uniform and if you ever have to get back in there it'll come apart much more easily.